The United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), established in 1910 by an act of Congress, is an advisory agency of the Federal government.
The CFA is mandated to review and provide advice on "matters of design and aesthetics", involving federal projects and planning in Washington, D.C. In accordance with the Old Georgetown Act, the CFA advises on matters of historic preservation in the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, and other areas adjacent to "federal interests", in accordance with the Shipstead-Luce Act, authored by Minnesota Senator Henrik Shipstead and Michigan Congressman Henry Luce.
The CFA mandate does not apply to the United States Capitol, the Library of Congress, or the other properties and locations overseen by the Architect of the Capitol.
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In the context of the McMillan Plan for the capital city, President Theodore Roosevelt created the Council of Fine Arts by executive order in 1909. He appointed the following thirty men to this aesthetic review board, reflecting the "official tastemakers" of the day: architects Cass Gilbert, C. Grant La Farge, Walter Cook, William A. Boring, S.B.P. Trowbridge, John G. Howard, Glenn Brown, Thomas Rogers Kimball, John Mauran, Daniel Burnham, John M. Donaldson, George B. Post, Arnold Brunner, Robert Swain Peabody, Charles Follen McKim, William S. Eames, James Rush Marshall, Abram Garfield, Frank Miles Day, William B. Mundie, and C. Howard Walker. Painters John La Farge, Francis Davis Millet, Edwin Blashfield, and Kenyon Cox. Sculptors Daniel Chester French, Herbert Adams, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, Karl Bitter; and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.. The Fine Arts Council was a false start, and was immediately embroiled in controversy. The Council met only once.
The succeeding Council of Fine Arts, created by Act of Congress in the William Howard Taft administration, was organized with only seven members, and Taft made Daniel Burnham the chairman. Burnham's chairmanship was significant; it was his work at the World's Columbian Exposition and the Burnham Plan for Chicago that was the principle influence on the creation of the McMillan Plan to begin with.
Since then the seven seats on the CFA have been held by figures like J. Alden Weir, Paul Manship, Frederick Hart, George Biddle and Lee Lawrie. Current members include Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Witold Rybczynski.
In May 2008, the Commission, which has final approval on all elements of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, raised concerns about "the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed sculpture" noting that it "recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries." The letter, and the ensuing publicity, brought the controversial use of Chinese slave labor in marble and a Chinese sculptor to the attention of the greater public.
The current members of the Commission are: